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Warner Bros.' nemesis system is easily the cleverest innovation from its Middle-earth open-world action adventure series, turning an otherwise fairly mindless orc slaughtering party into something much impactful and lifelike. And while Red Dead Redemption 2 certainly doesn't need to learn any lessons from Shadow of Mordor or Shadow of War, a new mod adds the nemesis system to Rockstar's open-world Western opus, and I have to say, it sounds like a wildly good time.
As showcased in a wonderful Rockstar-style trailer with narration from Sarah Kempton, the enRAGE mod (available via Nexus Mods) makes it so that "everyone you cross in the West can become your nemesis.
"Rob a man, beat him or insult him, and he may not forget. He gets a name, a temper, a life story and a grudge, and one day he comes looking for you," reads the mod's description.
For the uninitiated, in the Middle-earth games, the nemesis system organizes Sauron's army into a hierarchy where each soldier has their own name, rank, strengths and weaknesses, and even personality traits. Individual orcs can climb through the ranks by killing you, and they'll remember their fatal methods for your next encounters, bragging and mocking you for your previous failure. Likewise, they'll hold grudges against you if you fail to kill them, bearing battle-accurate scars and pursuing you with vigor. It's a lot more complex than just that, but that's the gist of it, and you can incorporate that same system in Red Dead Redemption 2 with this mod from nicklovin99.
"Every NPC gets a name, a temper and a mind shaped by a life lived before you rode in. They remember what you did and will cross your path again. Some will like you, some will fear you, some will want you dead. Outfits feud and go to war with or without you, changing the people you know," says the mod creator.
I have yet to test out this mod and thus can't vouch for it, but it is described as being in "early access" and prone to bugs, which the developer asks you to report so that one day this can be "a polished (native Red Dead) feeling mod." Still, even in its current state, it sounds incredibly ambitious.
"Greet a stranger and you learn his name. From then on he is a real person in the world: a temper (Hothead, Proud, Cold, Coward, Greedy, Loyal or Drifter), traits, quirks, a trade, a faith, a family and a life story dated back years before he met you. His temper decides how he fights, whether he backs down, whether he talks and whether he forgives. People you meet turn up again in the same towns with the same face and the same grudge."
According to the mod author, tensions can rise to the point of faction wars "with goals, front lines, roadblocks and battles you can hear in the distance. Kill a side's officers, burn its supplies or rob its treasury, and watch its war collapse."
My hat's off to mod writers with the know-how to weave such an incredibly complex system into an already intricate network of systems in a game as massive as Red Dead Redemption 2. I haven't seen enough to be satisfied that the whole thing is interwoven seamlessly, and it sounds like in its early access state it isn't all totally seamless, but my interest is piqued nonetheless.
